AASL Standards Interview-Beth Janssen

On today, November 3, 2020, I was able to interview Mrs. Beth Janssen, a K-12 School Librarian at AGWSR Community School. She is the only Media Specialist amongst the 632 students that attend the AGWSR. Beth's polite, and hilarious personality immediately brighten our meeting. At first, I was nervous about interviewing these librarians simply because I feel as a intial certification student, I have so much to learn. I did not want to go in not knowing what I was talking about or sounding like the newbie as I am. However, Ms. Beth made this process so much easier. We begin talking about the basics of her library program. You can tell by the way that she explained her program and the wonderful things that she has done since being a librarian there, that she loves what she do. We spent over 2 hours talking before we actually got into the purpose of the interview. However, let's proceed with the AASL standards that was given to her before I type for over two hours about how great our conversation was. Mrs. Beth Shared Foundation, Domain and Competencies are listed below: AASL Standards Shared Foundation I. Inquire Domain- B. Share Competencies: School Librarians guide learners to maintain focus throughout the inquiry process by: • Assisting in assessing the inquiry-based research process. • Providing opportunities for learners to share learning products and reflect on the learning process with others The first words that came out of her mouth was, " I am so glad this is my subject, we are seriously working this lesson right now". When asked to provide examples of ways that she was implementing these competencies in her library program, she gave many examples. Just to narrow it down to a few, she mainly used a group model when teaching her students. She breaks her students into stations in the libray where they are able to learn about the online databases and how to research information. She also uses the AASL standard and foundation to teach the inquiry based library standards. Some resources that Ms. Beth currently used to implement these comptencies included the online databases, virtual discussions via google docs, virtual break-out rooms on google classroom, she is also using the canvas program to post assignments for students, kahoot and quizziz to make assessments fun. Most importantly, she teaching the inquiry-based process live through the use of STREAM on Microsoft teams. Collaboration is a must for Ms. Beth. She explained that without her teachers, it woul not be possible to run a library program. There is a big push for collaborating at her school. Recently, she has co-taught with teachers the inquiry-based process. She would teach the AASL standards while teachers would incorporate their SC State Inquiry-Based standards. This collaboration has been a huge it, because students are challenged to think more about inquiry when looking at it from two different perspectives. When students are assigned research papers, Ms. Beth works closely with teachers, providing necessary resources for students and the teachers. Another daily task that she complete for collaboration is working with teachers to determine what topics they are discussing and pulling useful sources for them to stop by and pick up quickly for lessons. Some challenges that Ms. Beth has faced includes, the younger students not having the prior knowledge about how to resarch topics or correct resources to pull for given topics. Therefore, she has found ways to conduct introductory lessons for the lower and upper grade level students that will activate their knowledge of the topic. Another challenge is not having enough time in the class period to teach the inquiry based process. Many of her lessons feel as though she is being rushed through them. I am certain this is something I will deal with as a new libarian, trying to fit everything into one in so little time. Ms. Beth provided further comments on the AASL standard stating that these are great standards to go by, however, it is almost impossible for them to be fully implemented into a library program when there is so much to do in a day. However, she did mention that this interview has bought much light on how impactful the standards are and she plans to get based on track with teaching these standards to her students. Again, this was another great interview and I look forward to hearing from Ms. Beth again. P.S. She provided me with her personal number, added me on facebook, and told me we could chat anything. We have talked almost everyday since! Oh, how I love this process of the internship!